addressing God

Translators of different languages have found different ways with what kind of formality God is addressed. The first example is from a language where God is always addressed distinctly formal whereas the second is one where the opposite choice was made.

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Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Tuvan uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Unlike other languages that have this feature, however, the translators of the Tuvan Bible have attempted to be very consistent in using the different forms of address in every case a 2nd person pronoun has to be used in the translation of the biblical text.

As Voinov shows in Pronominal Theology in Translating the Gospels (in: The Bible Translator 2002, p. 210ff.), the choice to use either of the pronouns many times involved theological judgment. While the formal pronoun can signal personal distance or a social/power distance between the speaker and addressee, the informal pronoun can indicate familiarity or social/power equality between speaker and addressee.

In these verses, in which humans address God, the informal, familiar pronoun is used that communicates closeness.

Voinov notes that “in the Tuvan Bible, God is only addressed with the informal pronoun. No exceptions. An interesting thing about this is that I’ve heard new Tuvan believers praying with the formal form to God until they are corrected by other Christians who tell them that God is close to us so we should address him with the informal pronoun. As a result, the informal pronoun is the only one that is used in praying to God among the Tuvan church.”

In Gbaya, “a superior, whether father, uncle, or older brother, mother, aunt, or older sister, president, governor, or chief, is never addressed in the singular unless the speaker intends a deliberate insult. When addressing the superior face to face, the second person plural pronoun ɛ́nɛ́ or ‘you (pl.)’ is used, similar to the French usage of vous.

Accordingly, the translators of the current version of the Gbaya Bible chose to use the plural ɛ́nɛ́ to address God. There are a few exceptions. In Psalms 86:8, 97:9, and 138:1, God is addressed alongside other “gods,” and here the third person pronoun o is used to avoid confusion about who is being addressed. In several New Testament passages (Matthew 21:23, 26:68, 27:40, Mark 11:28, Luke 20:2, 23:37, as well as in Jesus’ interaction with Pilate and Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well) the less courteous form for Jesus is used to indicate ignorance of his position or mocking (source Philip Noss).

In Dutch and Western Frisian translations, however, God is always addressed with the formal pronoun.

See also female second person singular pronoun in Psalms.

Translation commentary on Jeremiah 10:25

This verse is almost equivalent with Psa 79.6-7. The main difference between the two passages is that the psalm does not include the verb phrase have devoured him, which is also absent from some Hebrew manuscripts and from the Septuagint as well for this verse. Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, however, believes it to have been an original part of the Jeremiah passage. It is retained in most translations, though Revised English Bible omits it with a footnote.

Wrath (Good News Translation “anger”) is first used in 4.4. In place of the expression Pour out thy wrath, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch has “Your wrath must strike.”

That know thee not may mean either “that do not worship you” (Good News Translation) or “who do not acknowledge you” (New Jerusalem Bible; similarly Revised English Bible). The expression that call not on thy name similarly means “who do not worship you” or “who do not acknowledge you as LORD.” Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch understands that know thee not and that call not on thy name to be equivalent to “who will have nothing to do with you.” The two clauses are evidently similar in meaning, and may be translated by one statement, as in Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, or by something such as “who do not acknowledge you as God, nor worship you.”

Jacob (see 2.4; 10.16) is here equivalent to “Israel,” or better “the people of Israel.” Devoured is frequently used to mean “destroyed.” When joined with consumed, the meaning is reinforced to mean “destroyed completely.” If devoured is repeated, as recommended by Hebrew Old Testament Text Project, then the third and fourth lines may be rendered “Yes, not only have they killed your people of Israel, they have destroyed them completely.” Further, these foreigners have laid waste his habitation; that is, they have left his country nothing but a wasteland, a barren desert. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch translates the last three lines of the verse as follows: “As wild animals eat their prey, they have eaten your people until nothing remains, and they have turned your land into a desert.”

Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Stine, Philip C. A Handbook on Jeremiah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2003. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .